Les Diaboliques.
French director Clouzot was often referred to as a Gallic Hitchcock, and it’s this film that earned him that cultural connection.
However, while Clouzot’s work is undeniably influenced by the master of suspense, the inspiration also worked the other way round with Les Diaboliques.
Made five years before Hitchcock shocked the world with Psycho, it’s a film that bears more than passing resemblance to Hitchcock’s foray into full-on horror, in terms of visuals and ambiance.
There’s also an elaborately staged bathroom murder in both movies that needs to be analyzed in greater detail.
The director’s wife, Vera Clouzot, is Christina, a timid and troubled woman who is being openly abused by her nasty husband Michel (Paul Meurisse), a rude headmaster at a rundown school.
He is openly having an affair with one of his a teacher, Nicole (Simone Signoret), whom he treats almost as badly as his poor put-upon wife.
Enough is enough! Finally, tired of Michel’s abusive behavior, the two women join forces to plot his demise, although their carefully laid-out plans to murder their tormentor swiftly unravel.
When the pool is subsequently drained, though, the corpse has miraculously vanished, and when sightings of the dead headmaster start to crop up, the two women are driven to distraction trying to work out what has really happened.
